1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to examining systems, specifically for currency examining systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, it has been known to use devices to distinguish between authentic and counterfeit paper currency. There are distinguishing features incumbent with authentic currency so as to provide an opportunity to distinguish authentic from counterfeit paper currency. There are people who endeavor to create counterfeit currency and try to use it as authentic currency. Such criminal behavior causes great financial damage to individual persons and well as the economy as a whole. There is a need for devices that accurately, quickly, easily and affordably distinguish the difference between authentic and counterfeit paper currency. Some improvements have been made in the field. Examples include but are not limited to the references described below, which references are incorporated by reference herein:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,068, issued to Bryenton et al., discloses a method and apparatus of reading bank notes is provided comprising storing signals in a memory. The imaging apparatus for scanning a stationary banknote includes a stationary light source, mirror, charge coupled device (CCD), and lens. The method corresponding to at least a portion of an array of pixels defined by a printed pattern on the face of a bank note, raster scanning the face of the bank note with a charge coupled device (CCD) to obtain a serial signal representing the pattern, searching the memory for the serial signal, comparing the serial signal with the stored signals, and indicating the correct presence of the bank note in the event the comparison correlates to a predetermined degree.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,618,765, issued to Cooper et al., discloses an apparatus to detect counterfeit U.S. paper currency in a manner which is simple, quick, and requires little or not skill. Almost all official U.S. paper currency does not exhibit a chromamorphic response other than that naturally attributable to the cotton or linen stock. Almost all counterfeit currency will exhibit a definite chromamorphic response in the blue range when activated by properly filtered ultraviolet light. Any suspected counterfeits are further subjected to a test for determining the magnetic characteristics of the ink. Genuine U.S. paper currency for the last 25 years uses black ink which incorporates a magnetic pigment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,393, issued to Kawakami, discloses a bill discriminating device which is able to carry out a bill discriminating operation at high speed and precision based on a reduced amount of processing data for bill-type discrimination by extracting and reading only characteristic regions of the bill. According to the present invention, bill discrimination can be carried out by: reading the picture image data output from an image sensor; roughly discriminating the type of bill from the length of the picture image data (corresponding to the width of the bill); reading position data and reference patterns of the characteristic regions corresponding to the type of bill; extracting picture image data (a characteristic pattern) corresponding to the characteristic regions from the position data; and, finally discriminating the type of bill by comparing the characteristic patterns with the reference patterns.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,187,891, issued to Chichester et al., discloses a document handling device.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,220,529, issued to Wong, discloses method for discriminating between desired and undesired documents.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,187,463, issued to Kivenson, discloses a detector apparatus for counterfeit paper currency comprising a clamp and torsion pendulum assembly for holding a note to be tested, a moveable magnetic field source mounted so that it can be brought into contact with the note and then withdrawn, and indicating means for detecting and measuring deflection of the note.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,812, issued to Koltai et al., discloses an apparatus and process for hiding the secondary image within the primary image and generating a high quality hard copy of the unified elemental image of a variety of media. The process comprises the steps of rasterizing the first image into a first elemental image and rasterizing the second image, compensated with its own inverse, into an second elemental image. The first elemental image and the second elemental image are merged into a unified elemental image based on a predetermined decoding and compensating principle, resulting in the second elemental image being hidden within the first elemental image. An output image is created based on the unified elemental image where the primary image is visible to an un-aided eye while the secondary image is hidden from the un-aided eye.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 283,803, issued to Zonn, discloses the ornamental design for a counterfeit currency examining device.
The inventions heretofore known suffer from a number of disadvantages which may include being inconvenient, unduly complicated, limited accuracy, expensive and/or otherwise fail to provide an easy, portable and/or time efficient means to distinguish the authenticity of paper currency.
What is needed is a currency examining system that solves one or more of the problems described herein and/or one or more problems that may come to the attention of one skilled in the art upon becoming familiar with this specification.